Insights into epigenetics and chromatin dynamics have profoundly affected our understanding of biological processes including development, aging, complex diseases and oncogenesis, providing a more comprehensive view than could be ascertained by considering information from genetic or gene expression studies alone. Importantly, a pipeline of new therapeutics is emerging that directly target epigenetic modifications or the enzymes that install these modification. Therefore, detection of genome-associated protein complexes, as well as histone post-translational modifications and positioning, are crucial for developing of new diagnostic and therapeutic strategies. However, the methods utilized in the research laboratory are not at present readily translatable to clinical applications. We are developing a suite of droplet microfluidic components that can be integrated into a robust and automated platform supporting chromatin immunoprecipitation and nucleosome footprinting. The ability to perform these assays with high reproducibility and minimal sample input requirements is poised to enable the clinical realization of personalized epigenetics.

Ryan C. Bailey

ProfessorUniversity of Michigan -

Ryan C. Bailey is the Robert A. Gregg Professor in the Department of Chemistry at the University of Michigan. He received degrees in chemistry from Eastern Illinois University (B.S.) and Northwestern University (PhD.), and completed postdoctoral training jointly at the California Institute of Technology and the Institute for Systems Biology. Prior to joining the faculty at Michigan, Prof. Bailey was on the faculty at the University of Illinois
at Urbana-Champaign for a decade. His research group is generally interested in developing highly multiplexed and parallelizable detection strategies for point-of-care diagnostics, with applications in advanced genomic, transciptomic, proteomic, and epigenomic analyses. Prof. Bailey was named by Technology Review Magazine at a Top Innovator under 35 and has been recognized with a Sloan Foundation Fellowship, the Arthur F. Findeis Award from the American Chemical Society, the PITTCON Achievement Award, and a NIH Director’s New Innovator Award, among others.